In most instances in the past, the application of treating materials to seeds has been done in commercial processing plants. Some difficulties have been encountered with such processed seed which has been diverted for purposes other than use as seed. Of course, great care must be taken that such treated seed will not be diverted to human consumption. Government regulations closely control the handling of such treated seed in transport and storage. Further, when seed has been treated ahead of time, it has been found that the seed treating materials may start to break down when exposed to air, and, of course, this results in loss of some of the strength and effectiveness of the treating materials.
One prior apparatus, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,263, suggests the injecting of treating material into an auger tube by an electric fuel pump energized simultaneously with the electric drive motor for the auger. This arrangement has many difficulties because many, if not most, screw conveyors are driven with sources of power other than electric motors; and further, the quantity of treating material applied to the grain relates to a number of factors which are not related directly to the flow of the grain, and therefore it is likely that inadequate or excessive amounts of treating material will be applied to the seed grain traveling in the auger tube.